Editor's Comment: Although the countries of Latin America are independent of one another and treasure their sovereignty, they also share the same land mass, similar cultures and colonial histories. When one is attacked, all realize the insult and experience the pain. Few understand this more keenly than writer/journalist, Arturo Rosales. I received a telephone text message from another Venezuelan friend with news of the Paraguayan coup moments after it was revealed in the Venezuelan news: "Camarada, ellos ejecutan un golpe institucional contra Lugo en Paraguay como el uno en Honduras". ("Comrade, they are executing an institutional coup d'etat against Lugo in Paraguay like the one in Honduras.") The recent coup in Paraguay was felt by all and the people here in Venezuela shared all the tidbits of information even as the news of the coup unfolded.

The current imperialist war is not only being waged in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. No region of the world is more vitally important to the imperial agenda than Central and South America. Washington is as active in the South as ever and unless they are stopped, they are not going to surrender their quest to re-colonize the countries that have thrown off their European and U.S. shackles over the last 10-15 years.

Arturo Rosales and I were sharing information yesterday on the telephone about a resurgence of neocolonial patterns, currently visible in Latin America. I asked him if he would put his analysis to writing for this publication on Axis of Logic.

- Les Blough, Editor

This political map (before the Paraguayan coup) reveals the awakening of Latin America over the recent past and the problem facing US imperialism in the Western Hemisphere. Coups, attempted coups and destabililization comprise Washington's response. The overriding question asks if the Yankee's 'final solution' will work - or whether it's too little, too late.

Coups and attempted coups in Latin America since 2002 are too frequent to be coincidental.

The Project for a News American Century (PNAC) aimed at full spectrum dominance for US imperialism is not just limited to the Middle East and North Africa. There is compelling evidence that the PNAC philosophy is being implemented in Latin America and has been since early 2002.

Let’s look at the facts in chronological order:

• April 2002 – Venezuela – President Hugo Chavez ousted for 47 hours. Reinstalled by civil-military action against media coup.
  
  
• December 2002 – Venezuela – oil industry sabotage to overthrow President Chavez again. It failed as the people held together to withstand 63 day Managers Lockout that nearly destroyed the economy.
  
  
• February 2004 – Haiti – constitutional and democratically elected President Jean Bertrand Aristide was removed from power and flown to Central Africa by the US Air Force.
  
  
• September 2008 – Bolivia – A civic coup against President Evo Morales carried out by trying to split the country, separating the gas and oil producing states of Bolivia from the rest of the country (“The Half Moon”). The US and Spain's PP (Partico Popular) were involved and the Coup failed.
  
  
• June 2009 – Honduras – Democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya was arrested and flown out of the country to Costa Rica by the military after Congress accused him of violating the constitution by asking voters to actually vote on reforming the constitution.
  
  
• September 2010 – Ecuador – President Rafael Correa faced a police strike supposedly for better salaries and working conditions. It turned out to be ana attempted coup in disguise. It failed only because the military was loyal to President Correa.
  
  
  • June 2012 – Paraguay – President Fernando Lugo was ousted by a vote in Congress and Senate without any evidence of wrongdoing being presented. It was all over in 24 hours and new President Federico Franco was installed in short order. This “institutional coup” has led Latin American countries to withdraw their ambassadors, Paraguay to be suspended from Mercosur.

It is worth noting that Wikileaks released a confidential cable from 2009 confirming that the US knew about the planned coup and how it was to be executed against President Lugo. A 2009 diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks shows U.S. officials believed Lugo’s opponents were planning to remove him through the same channels as they did last week. The cable described Lugo’s opponents "goal" as:

"Capitalize on any Lugo missteps to break the political deadlock in Congress, impeach Lugo and assure their own political supremacy."

Now if the US is the champion of democracy why did it not alert President Lugo and his administration to this plot to oust him using the Congress and Senate? The question is rhetorical of course.

The institutions that are supposed to uphold democracy in the region such as the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) have been muted in their response to the Paraguayan coup. This once again has raised suspicions that the heads of these organizations are really “puppets” of the US since by the time they have responded the Paraguayan coup will have been consolidated.

Let us not forget that back in April 13th 2002 the IACHR wrote a letter to the “new government” of Venezuela before President Chavez had been restored to power recognizing the Carmona de facto regime. Santiago Canton, head of the IACHR has never explained this action and has never apologized to the Venezuelan people for this infamous action. For this reason the IACHR is persona non grata in Venezuela and could well be in Paraguay when this unconstitutional mess is finally cleared up. The ICHR would appear to back politicians of questionable democratic credentials (Carmona and perhaps the new de facto Paraguayan President Federico Franco) instead of the votes and political will of the ordinary people.

This is what has happened and so far, seven coups or attempted coups in twelve years. Three coups have been successful against democracy– Haiti, Honduras and Paraguay – a system much valued by the US but only when it serves its interests.

But the current situation is even more threatening for the democracies in Latin America.

June 2012 – Bolivia – The police strike against Morales government demanding better wages is now almost one week old. It is the same modus operandi as the attempted coup in Ecuador just two years ago. Media manipulation rife. The situation is fluid at time of this writing. A deal was reached but then rejected by certain police groups.

June 2012 – Argentina – The main trade union with 8 million members the CGT has called a national fuel truckers strike against the Fernandez de Kirchner government. This modus operandi was instrumental in and used by the CIA when President Salvador Allende was overthrown in September 1973. A pay deal was reached but CGT has called for more protests now asking for taxes to be cut. Strange that this should happen just two months after YPF, which belonged to Spain’s multinational REPSOL, was nationalized by President Fernandez. Some Spanish politicians including the Spanish President Rajoy and Industry Minister Soria, threatened Argentina with retaliation in the wake of the nationalization.

2012 – Venezuela – with presidential election due on October 7th and the opposition candidate trailing in the vote intention polls by around 20 points, the US, Colombian and Spanish backed opposition in Venezuela has not stated that it will recognize the results as published by the National Electoral Council (CNE). There is a campaign of discrediting the CNE underway in the private media and it looks as if the opposition will cry fraud when Chavez wins by a landslide and refuse to recognize the electoral victory of the Venezuelan people.

As President Chavez said on June 24th during the 191st Anniversary of the Battle of Carabobo which sealed independence in 1821 from the Spanish colonialist,

“On October 7th or 8th the opposition has a plan not to recognize the election results so the armed forces and the people must be on alert to defend the results from their plans – which are the plans of the Empire”.

The major prizes

This is without a doubt Venezuela with the largest proven oil reserves in the world (297 billion barrels of recoverable reserves) and just five days away from US refineries on the south coast.

Overthrowing smaller countries’ governments and trying to isolate Venezuela is the strategic aim and change the color of the Latin American and Caribbean political map from red to blue.

The aim is to reintroduce neoliberal economic policies and the US hegemony in the region which has been sapped by social movements and progressive presidents in the last 15 years or so.

Readers may well ask, “But why Paraguay?” It is a way or weakening Latin American unity by “chopping off” a piece of the region but the strategic reason from a US point of view is that under Paraguay and parts of Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil lies the Guarani Aquifer – one of the largest bodies of fresh water on the planet.

Along with Venezuelan oil, Paraguayan fresh water is another major prize for the US to gain control of. Nowadays wars are waged for oil, gas and its extraction and transportation; wars of the future will be fought over fresh water.

In the case of Bolivia it is no longer a case of tin mining. There are the second biggest reserves of gas in the South America continent after Venezuela and half the world’s reserves of mineral called lithium. Lithium is vital for the development of a true electric vehicle as it is needed to make the batteries or power packs required to make such vehicles travel longer distances, thus making them much more commercially viable.

Imperial Strategy – Problem-Reaction-Solution

The strategy is based around what David Icke calls Problem-Reaction-Solution. For example, Problem: The Bolivian police want higher wages. Reaction: Strike and cause mayhem. Solution: Refuse to negotiate a wage settlement and instead insist that the government (cause of the problem) be ousted because they paid lower wages to the police than the military. This also applies to the failed coup in Ecuador in 2010.

In specific relation to Paraguay – there were 19 people killed in a land dispute. This is the Problem. The Reaction is to blame President Lugo. The Solution is to oust him. No need for details such as the presence of snipers with rifles (a favorite CIA modus operandi) and Wikileaks' published evidence that the coup was planned as far back as 2009. However, in the case of such a massacre the people obviously want the elected legislators to protect them against a monster such as Lugo. This is the justification of the Solution.

In summary, destabilization will continue in the region with Bolivia being the next objective in the coming days or weeks. Now that President Fernandez has dared touch the sacred cow of a multinational, REPSOL, we can be certain that Argentina will come under increasing pressure from both the corrupt CGT and the powerful land owners, working in tandem with invisible corporate interests that serve the US and its ruling class.